CHINA/FOREIGN POLICY/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration is asking Beijing for a plan to cut the annual U.S. trade deficit with China by $100 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday [3-7-18] that Washington had asked Beijing for a $1 billion reduction—less than 0.3% of the countries’ annual trade gap or around one day’s worth of the trade imbalance. His tweet was off by $99 billion.
According to the people, Trump administration officials made the request to Liu He, the main architect of China’s economic policy, last week when he was in Washington. Mr. Liu said in his Washington meetings that narrowing the vast bilateral trade deficit was in China’s interest as China seeks to shift away from an export-led growth model. It is unclear how feasible the deficit-reduction goal is for Beijing and what kind of plan it could offer…
The impact of the proposed U.S. tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum makers is ultimately expected to be small. What could come in the coming months likely will be more damaging to China. The Trump administration is weighing broad trade and investment penalties against Beijing as it completes a probe into allegations of Chinese theft and expropriation of American intellectual property.”
-Lingling Wei, “U.S. Asks China for Plan to Reduce Trade Deficit by $100 Billion,” The Wall Street Journal online, Mar. 8, 2018 10:09am